We found over three dozen excellent free poetry and prose contests with deadlines between October 15-November 30. In this issue, Jim Avis animates Julian Peters' illustrations of "The Burial of the Dead" from "The Waste Land" by T. S. Eliot.
This month's Annie Mydla column interviews Mina Manchester, final judge of our Tom Howard/John H. Reid Fiction & Essay Contest. Mina talks about her approach as a judge, what makes a great short prose entry, and how judging the contest has influenced her own writing.
 CONGRATULATIONS to the winners of our 32nd annual Tom Howard/John H. Reid Fiction & Essay Contest! Lanfu Liu submitted the winning essay, "Memory in Tibet". Kathleen McNamara submitted the winning story, "Cryptozoology". The winners each received $3,500 and a gift certificate from Duotrope, and we commissioned original art for both entries. We also awarded ten Honorable Mentions and $300 to Clea Bierman, Sarah Cadorette, Juliana Delany, Zoe Hiemstra, Talya Jankovits, Rebekah McDermott, Ilari Pass, Jason Prokowiew, Arya Samuelson, and Jennie Stevenson. This contest received 2,249 entries from around the world. Mina Manchester judged, with assistance from Sarah Halper. We would also like to recognize the exceptional contest administration and service provided by Annie Mydla and
Paweł Zagawa. Read the press release. Read the winning entries with the judge's remarks.
Our new Fiction & Essay contest is open now. Duotrope rejoins us as a co-sponsor and Mina Manchester returns to judge with Sarah Halper. We are increasing the Honorable Mention awards to $500 to better recognize their quality. We are also increasing the entry fee to $25 to improve the compensation for our judges. The contest deadline is May 1, 2025.
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Deadline: November 15
A home doesn't have to be a structure with four walls. It can be a state of being. We want to know what exactly "home" means to you! Submit published or unpublished poems, up to 20 lines each. Fee: $10 per poem.
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1st Prize — $200, Certificate and Publication
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2nd — $100, Certificate and Publication
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3rd — $50, Certificate and Publication
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All Finalist poems published in Anthology
Enter at Oprelle.
We congratulate our 2023 winners:
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1st Prize: "Northern Needles" by Rose Antol
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2nd: "Evening" by Pardeep Jindal
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3rd: “Where the Heart Lives” by Ann Chiappetta
Read their poems.
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Congratulations to Judy Juanita, Koss, Tara Campbell, Mary Buchinger, Lee Desrosiers, Ginny Lowe Connors, Gary Beck, Yvonne, Gloria Mindock, William Huhn, Samantha Terrell, R.T. Castleberry, Duane L. Herrmann, and James K. Zimmerman.
Winning Writers editor Jendi Reiter will read as part of the OUTspoken LGBTQ+ Reading Series sonsored by The Publishing Triangle. The event will take place at 7pm on October 23 at the Bureau of General Services-Queer Division, 208 West 13th Street, Room 210, New York, NY. It will also be livestreamed on YouTube. A donation of $10 is suggested but not required.
On November 3 at 3pm, Jendi will read online in the Saddle Road Press First Sundays series with Donald Mengay (The Lede to Our Undoing and Ojo). Register for this free event on Zoom.
All times are Eastern US.
Learn about our subscribers' achievements and see links to samples of their work.
Have news? Please email it to jendi@winningwriters.com.
Do you use TikTok or Instagram? Send your news to the @winningwriters account so we can share it!
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Deadline: October 20
Submit to Eyelands Book Awards 2024 and win a five-day stay in Athens or have your book translated into Greek from Strange Days Books. This is the seventh consecutive year of the one and only international book award based in Greece. We seek talented writers from all over the world.
New this year:
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Second chance for grand prize: Writer's choice award!
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See your story or poem translated into Greek and published!
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Self-published books category—with a reduced entry fee!
Eleven more prizes, one for each category of every section. Win a special handmade ceramic designed especially for the Awards. Certification document for every prize. Online certification for the finalists. Video promotion across our social media for grand prize and prize winners.
Eligible submissions include poetry, novellas, short story collections, novels, children's and YA books, historical fiction/memoir, and graphic novels.
Finalists will be announced on November 20. Winners will be announced on December 30.
Learn more and submit online!
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Deadline extended to October 21
$5,000 Fiction | $5,000 Nonfiction | $5,000 Poetry
Winners receive a cash prize, publication in the Spring 2025 issue of the Missouri Review, and promotion across our social media channels.
Guidelines
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Submit one piece of fiction or nonfiction up to 8,500 words or any number of poems between 6 to 12 pages. Please double-space fiction and nonfiction entries.
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Multiple submissions and simultaneous submissions are welcome, but you must pay a separate fee for each entry and withdraw the piece immediately if accepted elsewhere.
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Entries must be previously unpublished.
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Standard Entry fee: $25. Each entrant receives a one-year subscription to the Missouri Review in digital format (normal price $24) and a digital copy of the latest title in our imprint, Missouri Review Books, a short story anthology by former contributors (normal price $7.95).
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"All Access" Entry fee: $30. In addition to the one-year digital subscription to the Missouri Review and TMR Books e-book, Life Support: Stories of Health & Medicine, entry fee grants access to the last 10 years of digital issues and the audio recordings of each digital issue.
Submit online or by mail.
Read prize-winning stories by Melissa Yancy, Rachel Yoder, and Thomas Dodson, essays by Peter Selgin and Dave Zoby, and a selection from poetry winners Katie Bickham, Kai Carlson-Wee, and Alexandra Teague. You can also check out readings and conversations with past winners on our YouTube channel.
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Jendi Reiter, author of the novel Origin Story (Saddle Road Press, 2024), will read online in The Publishing Triangle's monthly OUTspoken reading series on Wednesday, October 23, at 7pm Eastern US Time. You can attend this event in person at the Bureau of General Services–Queer Division bookstore in New York City or livestream it on their YouTube channel. A donation of $10 is suggested but not required. The Publishing Triangle was founded in 1988 to promote LGBTQ literature through award programs, workshops, and readings.
On November 3 at 3pm Eastern, Jendi will read online in the Saddle Road Press First Sundays series with Donald Mengay (The Lede to Our Undoing and Ojo). Register for this free event on Zoom.
In case you missed their September event at the BGSQD: Watch Jendi's reading and discussion with novelist Ella Dawson (But How Are You, Really) on YouTube.
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Early-bird deadline: October 31
Entries are now being accepted for the 2025 Next Generation Short Story Awards, a not-for-profit international awards program for authors of short stories. The Short Story Awards offers 30+ categories to choose from and accepts original, unpublished stories (5,000 words or fewer) written in English by authors in the US, Canada, or internationally.
Early Bird Special: Enter and pay online by October 31 and your second category selection is free! On November 1 the price returns to normal.
Take advantage of this exciting opportunity to have your story considered for 30+ cash prizes, gold medals, complimentary gold digital stickers, literary exposure, and recognition as one of the top stories of the year! Winners will have their story published in an annual Anthology of Winners (you maintain copyright) and will receive a complimentary copy of the Anthology of Winners. Enter today.
The Short Story Awards is brought to you by the Next Generation Indie Book Awards, the largest international book awards program in the world for independent and self-published authors.
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Deadline: October 31!
Hollywood has adapted countless movies and TV pilots from great short stories. Our judges are looking for stories with potential to be adapted for the screen. We’re looking for true and fictional stories, everything from full-length novels to novellas under 20,000 words.
Benefits include:
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Grand Prize Winners will receive an opportunity to develop their project with a manager at Intellectual Property Group.
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One selected winner will get their story produced with innovative multimedia company Crazy Maple.
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Winners and select finalists receive introductions to book agents, literary managers, producers and more.
This could be your chance to see your story come to life in a new and dynamic way. Learn more and submit!
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Deadline: December 31
Gifted fiction writers! Lilith magazine—independent, Jewish & frankly feminist—seeks quality short stories with heart, soul, and chutzpah, 3,000 words or under, for our Annual Fiction Contest.
First prize: $300 and publication. No fee to enter. We especially like fresh fiction with feminist and Jewish nuance and are eager to read submissions from writers of color and emerging writers of any age.
Submit to info@lilith.org with the subject line “Fiction Contest” and your surname. Include full contact information on manuscript.
Check out FRANKLY FEMINIST: Short Stories by Jewish Women from Lilith Magazine, available here or wherever you buy books.
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Deadline: January 6, 2025
Submissions are now open for the DISQUIET Literary Prize! This contest is for writing in fiction, nonfiction, or poetry by a writer who has not yet published a full-length book. The first prize winners in each genre will be published:
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the fiction winner in Granta.com
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the nonfiction winner in Ninthletter.com
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the poetry winner in The Common
One grand prize winner will receive a full scholarship including tuition, lodging, and a $1,000 travel stipend to attend the DISQUIET International Literary Program in Lisbon in 2025 (June 22-July 4). Genre winners will receive full tuition waivers. Cash prize available in lieu of travel. Reading fee: $15.
Read the full contest guidelines or enter at Submittable.
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Deadline: February 13, 2025
Entries are now being accepted for the 2025 Next Generation Indie Book Awards, the most exciting and rewarding book awards program open to independent publishers and authors worldwide who have a book written in English and released in 2023, 2024, or 2025 or with a 2023, 2024, or 2025 copyright date. The Next Generation Indie Book Awards are presented by Independent Book Publishing Professionals Group.
There are 80+ categories to choose from, so take advantage of this exciting opportunity to have your book considered for cash prizes, awards, exposure, possible representation by a leading literary agent, and recognition as one of the top independently published books of the year!
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Immerse yourself in over 50 years of enthralling stories, thought-provoking essays, and stunning poetry with a subscription to Ploughshares. Subscribers also submit to our Emerging Writer's Contest and Regular Reading Period (open now) for free! Grab your subscription today.
Ploughshares has published quality literature since 1971. Our award-winning literary journal is published four times a year: blended poetry and prose issues in the Winter and Spring, a prose issue in the Summer, and a special longform prose issue in the Fall.
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Some contests are best suited to writers at the early stages of their careers. Others are better for writers with numerous prizes and publications to their credit. Here is this month's selection of Spotlight Contests for your consideration:
Emerging Writers
Ezra Jack Keats Children's Book Award. The University of Southern Mississippi will award prizes of $5,000 in New Writer and New Illustrator categories for published picture books that portray the universal qualities of childhood, a strong and supportive family, and the multicultural nature of our world. Books must have been first published in North America and in the English language during the current calendar year. Authors may be of any nationality. Winners must attend ceremony at the University of Southern Mississippi to receive award. No self-published titles. Only original stories qualify for the New Writer award; no folktales or retellings. Publisher must send 11 copies of book for consideration to the various
addresses specified on sponsor's website. Postmark your entry by December 1.
Intermediate Writers
John Pollard Foundation International Poetry Prize. The Trinity Oscar Wilde Centre for Irish Writing will award 10,000 euros for an English-language debut poetry collection, 48 pages minimum, first published between October 1 of the previous year and the deadline date. Publisher should email a PDF of the book and a brief author bio (200 words maximum); the sponsor will then provide the publisher with a mailing address where four hard copies of the published book must be sent. Must be received by October 18.
Advanced Writers
Marfield Prize/National Award for Arts Writing. The Arts Club of Washington will award $10,000 for a nonfiction book first published in the US in the current calendar year about an artistic discipline (e.g., visual, literary, performing, or media arts). Publishers, agents, or authors should complete the entry form and submit 3 copies of the book. Winner will participate in a short, all-expenses-paid residency in Washington, DC. Must be received by October 27 (new deadline).
See more Spotlight Contests for emerging, intermediate, and advanced writers within The Best Free Literary Contests database.
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Winning Writers finds open submission calls and free contests in a variety of sources, including Erika Dreifus' Practicing Writer newsletter, FundsforWriters, Erica Verrillo's blog, Authors Publish, Lit Mag News Roundup, Poets & Writers, The Writer, Duotrope, Submittable, and literary journals' own newsletters and announcements.
• Fence: Poetry Translation Submissions
(journal of innovative and experimental writing seeks translated poems - October 31)
• Orison Books: Prose Open Reading Period
("spiritually engaged" literary fiction and nonfiction book manuscripts - October 31)
• Terrapin Books Anthology: "What the House Knows"
(published or unpublished poems with houses in them - October 31)
• The Iowa Review: "Bodies In and Out of Control" Issue
(poetry, fiction, essays on bodies as sites of freedom and surveillance - November 1)
• Mayday: Poetry and Translations
(poems, poetry book reviews, and literary translations - November 30)
• Sinister Wisdom: "Barbie: The Movie" Issue
(lesbian-feminist creative writing about Barbie - December 1)
• Rattle: Food Issue
(poetry about food - January 15, 2025)
• The Nomad: "Breakthroughs" Issue
(this journal pairs an author's published and unpublished work on a theme - April 30, 2025)
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Julian Peters writes, "Vidietteer Jim Avis is back with an animated adaptation of my own recently-completed comics adaptation of 'The Burial of the Dead', the first section of T. S. Eliot's immortal classic, 'The Waste Land'. The imagery is paired with a recital of the poetry by Eileen Atkins and everyone's favourite aristocratic British sex symbol, Jeremy Irons."
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Mourning Gaza During the High Holy Days
I feel less safe as a person of Jewish origins in America since Israel started this war of "self-defense". Rather than loosen their grip on Zionism, mainstream Jewish institutions are being seduced into alliance with the American Right, whose political candidates and pundits include actual Nazis.
[read more]
Jendi Reiter is the editor of Winning Writers.
Follow Jendi on X at @JendiReiter.
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